The reported alleged electricity theft involving Enemalta employees and several domestic and industrial customers (claimed to potentially add up to a staggering four-figure number) raises one big oversight of the building boom of recent decades. The prisons have not been significantly enlarged to accommodate the increasing numbers of our compatriots who may be corroding our civil society with corruption and fraud to oil the works that may have used to maintain their ‘lifestyles’.

Our courts and law enforcement need urgent reform. Serious anti-social crimes should not be let off lightly with suspended sentences due to lack of prison accommodation. The perception of inadequate law enforcement and deterrent will encourage a downward spiral of corruption, fraud and lack of civic sense.

It would give increasing credence to the frequently expressed north European belief that discipline and law enforcement in southern Europe is suspect.

We recently saw some British MPs being sent to prison for serious falsification of their expense accounts – that level of deterrence is what disciplines north Europeans.